Brian Stann's UFC on Fox 10 All-American Preview: Donald Cerrone vs. Adriano Martins
DONALD CERRONE VS. ADRIANO MARTINS
FOX analyst and former UFC middleweight contender “All American” Brian Stann gave MMAWeekly.com his breakdown of the UFC on Fox 10 main card fights. Next up is a pivotal lightweight fight between Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone and Adriano Martins, who square off Saturday night in Chicago.
Cerrone (21-6, 1 NC) is constantly in and out of the UFC title picture. He's currently trying to get back in by adding to his recent victory over Evan Dunham at UFC 167. Martins (25-6) is on a six-fight winning streak, knowing that a win over Cerrone would immediately elevate him into the championship mix.
The All-American Cerrone vs. Martins Breakdown
[Martins] has got the perfect opportunity here. He's got a real strong record and a fight against Donald Cerrone, a win over him would be huge for this young man.
We've seen Cowboy come in and on some nights he is on fire; when he's focused, he's in shape. Other nights, he comes in and you can tell there's part of him that would rather be doing something else. And on those nights, he can get outworked. We saw him against Rafael dos Anjos, he outworked Cerrone. It was a close fight, but he outworked him. That's got to be the fear here.
If we see Cerrone come out with that fire in his eye, that killer instinct, he's gonna be tough to beat. But, there's still some unknowns on Adriano Martins and Cowboy has been in a lot of good wars, and maybe this could be another one. It could be a real exciting fight depending on the focus level of Donald Cerrone. But all the interviews I've seen, all the arrows point towards a really good Donald Cerrone who's gonna come in with great striking, use his range, integrate his takedowns, and just have his overall game on point.
So it should be a real interesting fight, and we'll see some things that maybe we haven't seen from Martins yet.
Cerrone has said he doesn't know much about Martins. Is that a positive or a negative for him?
In most cases, I would tell you that fighting a lesser-known guy works against the better-known fighter. It makes it harder to motivate themselves. But, knowing Cowboy personally, he's really unpredictable. What motivates him and what lights his fire is different from anybody in the UFC. He's a different kind of guy. He goes in waves of ups and downs. It really doesn't matter who he's fighting. There are times where all this kid wants to do is get into a fight. If you fight him during one of those times, you'll be in for a really tough night.